Northridge Women Post 2 Wins in Volleyball

The Cal State Northridge women’s volleyball team found itself in a familiar position after dropping the first game of its match against Cal State Fullerton on Saturday.

The Matadors had lost the opening game in five of their previous six matches, winning only against Utah. So Northridge Coach Walt Ker had become accustomed to fighting uphill battles.

This time, however, the hill was not so steep, and Northridge rebounded to defeat Fullerton, 11-15, 15-6, 15-9, 15-5, in the inaugural Northridge Invitational.

“Instead of us starting to run a tape in our minds that said, ‘Uh, oh, here we go again,’ the tape that we ran in our minds was, ‘We need to get better,’ ” Ker said.

Late Saturday night, Northridge defeated UC Irvine in its final match of the tournament. The Matadors won, 15-12, 16-17, 11-15, 17-15, 15-12. Northridge (4-4) won three of its four matches in the tournament. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo also finished 3-1 but earned the tournament championship because it defeated the Matadors on Friday.

In Northridge’s first match Saturday, after the Matadors and Fullerton traded eight sideouts at the start of the second game, Northridge took control and maintained its edge the rest of the way.

Fullerton’s only two seniors--Stephanie Shrieve and Stephanie Scofield--were bothered by sprained ankles, and the Titans struggled to stay in the match.

Shrieve sat out the match and Scofield played sporadically but still contributed a team-high 20 digs. When Scofield was finally pulled for good in the final game, five freshmen and a sophomore were left to finish.

Northridge served a school-record 19 aces to further frustrate Fullerton--the Matadors had 16 against North Dakota State in 1982.

Nancy Nicholls, a Northridge middle blocker, recorded seven service aces, and Karen Scholl, a defensive specialist, contributed six.

Scholl led Northridge with 19 digs, and freshman middle blocker Ana Kristich was high for CSUN in kills with 16.

Nicholls recently sustained an abdominal pull and cannot swing at the ball for kills, but she played solidly in other areas, producing 13 digs.

Northridge overcame a lackluster performance by its freshman outside hitter, Missy Clements, who struggled though most of the match and made just three kills and one dig.

Jill Trehearne, a junior outside hitter, stepped in for Clements and helped provide an explosiveness to the Matador attack.